Chinese citizens living abroad are wondering whether it would be safer to return
Alina Wang, a Chinese citizen studying in Sydney, decided it would be best to go back to her native country. She felt that China was doing a good job curtailing the spread of covid-19. In Australia she had worries, including that few people wore masks when out and about. Now Ms Wang is in a hotel near her family’s home in a north-eastern Chinese province. She is serving out the last few days of a two-week quarantine that local officials said new arrivals must undergo.
Long ago China was reluctant to allow its citizens to travel the world freely. Now its doors are open and the numbers living abroad have soared. China sees them as a source of soft power and of knowledge that can help the country’s rise. In recent years it has been trying to boost their loyalty to the motherland by standing up for their interests. It says that since the outbreak began it has repatriated 1,000 nationals who had become stranded in hard-hit countries.
Netizens have been expressing anxiety about this on social media. They have raged against a handful of people who have concealed symptoms when entering the country or disregarded requests that they self-quarantine for two weeks after they arrive. This anger relates to a common complaint in China, that those with money and connections are often able to skirt rules. Only a small fraction of Chinese are rich enough to study abroad.
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